Field of Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a device and method for driving a shift lever and, more particularly, to a device and method for driving a shift lever which changes the travel distance of a shift lever when shifting to a specific shift stage such that a driver can easily recognize the specific shift stage.
Description of Related Art
Vehicles are provided with a transmission between an engine and a drive shaft in order to improve fuel efficiency and enable efficient driving. Drivers set the transmission to a specific shift stage by manipulating a shift lever provided inside a vehicle.
Typically, transmission systems of vehicles can be categorized into manual and automatic transmission systems. In a manual transmission system, a shift lever is directly connected to a transmission such that a driver directly manipulates the transmission. In an automatic transmission system, when a driver manipulates a shift lever in the shifting order of the P, R, N and D positions, a transmission is electronically operated to perform gear shifting.
Various shift lever models for automatic transmissions have been developed and proposed. An electronic shift lever, so-called a shift-by-wire shift lever, has recently been introduced and is increasingly applied to transmissions. The shift-by-wire shift lever performs gear shifting processes in response to a driver moving a shift lever forward and backward once or twice.
The shift-by-wire shift lever uses a fixed position where the shift lever is constantly located and a travel position to which the shift lever travels before returning to the fixed position in addition to a shifting order of P-R-N-D, which has been used in automatic transmissions of the related art. In this manner, the shift-by-wire shift lever can be located at the fixed position while traveling in the order of P-R-N-D, thereby reducing the space which the shift lever occupies and maximizing driver convenience.
However, after the shift lever has been used to change gears, the shift lever remains at a fixed position regardless of the shift stage. Therefore, there is an inconvenience in that, when a driver wants to recognize at which shift stage a vehicle is, he/she must visually check the state of the shift stage.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.